I have encountered the same thing--as we all have, I'm sure. Besides planning well in advance, (which I just don't have the skill set for), the other option is going to less popular places/off season places such as the Carribean in the summer or Europe in January. And frankly, I have not been able to use points for anything but coach for years now. My last biz class point usage to Rome was 10 years ago.

gary@bookyouraward.com
able to navigate the complicated rules for you.
finds the flights using your points for a fee.
well worth it since they have succeeded in confusing things so dramatically!

It seems that every month the airlines make it more difficult to redeem your frequent flyer miles and the number of miles required is continually increasing. As a result, the best thing to do is to redeem your miles as soon as possible because they become less valuable each day.

I'd say that frequent flyer miles really can't be devalued if they don't cost you anything in the first place. I'm not recommending that people start using this (clever but cumbersome) approach to obtain free frequent flyer miles, but it's certainly creative:

http://kottke.org/09/12/brilliant-frequent-flyer-miles-scheme

Marcie - what a fantastic (perfectly legal) scheme! Yes, it's cumbersome, but it works! If only the coins weren't so heavy!

Considering how much space they take up and how heavy all those coins are, I don't think it would be worth it in terms of time and effort to transport all those coins to the bank and to sit there and wait for them to be counted. It's a clever scheme but too much trouble - unless you're out to prove a point that you can generate absolutely free frequent flier miles.

I just love people that know how to plot and scheme and work systems. I just wish these clever folks would plot to cure cancer or scheme to end child porn or something!

In general, most airlines are currently reporting increasing revenues and larger profits. They haven't added very much additional capacity and the planes are much more crowded than they have been in years. So, they've been able to increase prices, especially in first and business class and for international flights. Delta Airlines just reported that its average plane flew with 85% of the seats full last quarter. Needless to say, the airlines are in no great rush to "give away" a seat for frequent flier miles when they can get a revenue paying customer. So it'll probably be even more difficult to redeem frequent flier miles for a flight somewhere over the months ahead.

As you can read in this article and as everybody probably knows, you can also exchange your frequent flier miles for other types of awards. But, the value you get by doing this is generally even less than what you can get when you use your miles for airline travel.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/travel/31prac-miles.html?ref=travel

Even though frequent flier miles are becoming less and less valuable every month, they can still be quite useful. I recently found myself in a situation where I had a modest amount of miles in my Mileage Plus account at United Airlines that were about to expire. (I used to fly a lot on United but no longer do.) The amount of miles in my account were not enough for me to take a trip anywhere I wanted to go and, rather than let them expire, I decided to cash those miles in for a high-end digital camera and a small kitchen appliance.

Under normal circumstances, it's apparent that you're not getting much value in cashing in your miles for such items, as you have to use a good amount of miles for things that just aren't that valuable. But, it's a much better alternative than just letting them expire.

Sohcahtoa - you're absolutely right. A lot of people let relatively small amounts of frequent flier miles expire for lack of enough miles to fly somewhere. There are some easy and inexpensive ways to extend the expiration date of those miles, such as buying a small amount of additional miles from the airline, taking a short flight somewhere or using one of the airline's travel partners. But if you don't want to use any of those, then using the miles to buy something through the airline's rewards program is a very good idea. Enjoy that new digital camera.......

Honestly, miles are becoming harder to redeem, particularly on certain carriers. From my experience among US airlines, American is the best with reward redemption, but still pretty tricky. Carriers are flying planes that are loaded full making for less room for free tickets.

My top tips:

- Make sure you are looking at partners when trying to redeem awards. You often have to call to inquire about this.
- Check other classes - if business class is not available, sometimes first is for just a few more miles.
- Be flexible with your dates.
- Book in advance!!!! Tickets usually open up at 330 days. If you know you want a business class ticket to Australia, you better book then!

Frequent flier miles, is it a tricky marketing promotion? Some bank customers upon opening a certain account find the said thing a good one. But, Citibank says frequent flyer miles are taxable , and that is the way it is. A big discussion for the affected bank customers.